


In Search of a Legacy

by Jellybean96



Series: Damn Good Family [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Future Fic, Kid Fic, Pregnancy, William's POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 07:33:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12626202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jellybean96/pseuds/Jellybean96
Summary: William struggles with his latest writing assignment for class, until one special moment helps him figure out exactly what he wants the world to know about his family.





	In Search of a Legacy

**Author's Note:**

> Hey babes! Got a new story for you lovely people reading this right now. First time posting something within the Arrow-verse, so I really hope I did the characters justice.
> 
> This one came to me pretty recently, I think not long after the new season premiered, and I knew that I wanted to get it down and post it before too much longer.
> 
> This is the first part of a little series I'm going to start with Arrow here, called the 'Damn Good Family' Universe. You'll see why the name once you finish this particular story.
> 
> Anyways, this starts about two-ish years into the future, and I really hope you all love reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I tried something a little different here, with the writing style, so I hope it worked.
> 
> Enjoy! :)

"Hey Will."

William smiles at his step mom as he tosses his gym back into the backseat and then slides into the passenger seat of the car, letting his slightly worn backpack fall to the floor at his feet as he buckles himself in.

"Hi."

"So how was school? How was practice?" she asks him as she pulls away from the front curb and back out onto the road. They're the same questions he gets asked every time one of his relatives picks him up from school lately. Usually it's either his father or stepmother, but occasionally it's his Aunt Thea or his Uncle Dig. And sometimes, very rarely, it's Curtis, Rene, or Dinah.

Today it's his stepmother.

"Will? You still there, kiddo?"

He pulls himself from his thoughts at the sound of his stepmother's voice again, looking over at her. "Sorry," he says with a sheepish smile.

She smiles softly at him. "It's fine. But you still haven't answered either of my questions. How was school? How was practice?"

He shrugs, relaxing back in his seat. "They were okay. Coach said I have a pretty good chance at making Varsity next year even though I'll only be a freshman."

His step mom smiles wide at him and her eyes light up, one of her 'proud mom' smiles that he's seen quite a few times over the last couple of years. "Will! That's amazing."

He smiles at her enthusiasm; it's contagious, always has been. "Thanks. But there's still a chance that I won't make Varsity next year. Freshmen hardly ever do."

"That's why you have to work hard and stay positive," she tells him.

"I'll keep that in mind." He takes a deep breath and relaxes a little further into his seat. "School wasn't as exciting as practice was. We did get a new writing assignment for English class, though. It's supposed to be a big part of our final grade and be really personal to us."

"Ooh. Interesting topic?"

"Kind of. We have to write about our family legacy, in a way. Like what our family contributes to society or whatever. And it's not like I can exactly write about how most of my family fights crime at night in masks and leather and has stopped numerous bad guys from completely destroying this city."

She tilts her head and furrows her brows. "Yeah, that might not be the best thing to do. Have you given any thought to what else you could write about?"

He shrugs again. "Sort of. I could call my grandparents and ask them about my mom's side of the family."

She nods. "You could."

"What about you?" he asks, looking over at her.

She furrows her brows. "What about me?"

"What has your side of the family done?" he clarifies for her. "I don't know that much about your family except for whatever stories Donna likes to tell about you when you were growing up."

She lets out a quiet sigh. "Well, I hate to break it to you, kiddo, but there's not much of a legacy where my side of the family is concerned. My mom's a former Vegas cocktail waitress who's now married to a cop, and my dad is a criminal. Not that I don't appreciate everything my mom did for me and sacrificed for me growing up and Quentin's a great guy, but there's not really much of a legacy there that you could write about."

William tilts his head in thought at the new information about his stepmother's biological father. "You built your own company from the ground up, though," he tells her. "That has to account for something."

"Building," she clarifies. "Still building. The company hasn't been up and running for very long."

"Still. I don't think too many of my classmates can say that one of their parents started their own highly successful tech company."

"No, probably not. But you should also talk to your dad, too," she suggests. "When we first met, his family had a company that was one of the top Fortune 500 Companies in the country. I used to work in the IT department there before I was promoted to his Executive Assistant, unwillingly I might add, after I started helping him with his Arrow business."

His brows furrow. "Didn't it get bought by someone else and then run into the ground or something, though?"

She nods. "Yes, it did. But it's still a big part of who your father is."

William tables the idea for later. He knows he probably needs to talk to his dad about the family's legacy, or just the family in general so he can really figure out what he wants to write about.

"So, how are you feeling?" he asks his step mother, letting out a breath.

Felicity lets out a breath of her own and rests a hand on her large stomach. "Better than I was yesterday, to be honest. Your little sister is not making it easy for me to do much of anything anymore. It really sucks." She frowns. "Especially not being able to wear all of my favorite clothes or have coffee when I desperately need it. I need coffee to live, William."

William smiles amusingly at the thought of how much his stepmother really needs coffee. Ever since he met her, he's taken a close observation of how much she really drinks coffee. And it's a lot. Probably more than any human should actually be allowed to consume in one sitting.

"You're happy though, right?" he asks her.

Felicity furrows her brows and nods. "Of course I am, buddy. I mean, I never really pictured myself as a mom before, but then I met your dad and then you," she says with a small smile. "And pretty soon your baby sister is going to be here which is going to be amazing but also slightly terrifying because I've never done the whole 'raise a kid from infancy' thing before and have them depend on you for everything. I mean, obviously I have you, but you were already a somewhat fully developed human by the time we met. But I like to think I've done a pretty decent job helping your dad raise you these last couple years."

William smiles at her. "You've done a great job, Felicity. And this baby is really lucky to have you as its mom."

Felicity smiles back at him. "Thanks, Will. And the baby's pretty lucky to have you as a big brother."

The rest of the car ride is spent in a comfortable silence. Neither occupant of the car needing to say much else to fill the space. That's one of the things he likes most about Felicity, that things are never really awkward between them.

Even their first meeting wasn't super awkward between them, his need for help in math being a perfect buffer for them to interact. They managed to bond pretty quickly after that first meeting and now they get along really well. William's just glad she didn't turn out to be a wicked-stepmother like some of his friends had joked about. He and his dad got pretty lucky.

* * *

"Hey, hon, how was your day? Any exciting mayoral things?"

"Not really. I'm just happy to be back here with you and Will."

"Are you not going out patrolling tonight?"

"No. Figured I'd let the others handle things on their own. I'd rather be here with you."

"That's very sweet. I'm glad you're staying in tonight too."

"You just want me to cook you dinner."

"Raisa's cooking is great and all, but you know all the best ways to please me. In the kitchen! With food…that you cook…on the stove. Or in the oven…for me to eat. I swear my word vomit has gotten so much worse since I got pregnant. What is wrong with me?"

"Nothing at all. I'm gonna take a quick shower and then I'll whip us up something to eat, okay?"

"Okay. I love you."

"You only love me for my food."

"Among other things."

William smiles from his place inside his bedroom at the soft sound of his parents talking with each other. They're always so happy when they're together; he sees it on the both of them whenever he's in the same room as them. Or even just on one of them when they're on the phone or texting with the other.

His Aunt Thea told him the story once about Oliver and Felicity, about how it took them seemingly forever to finally admit their feelings to one another after dancing around each other, and then all of the obstacles they had to face to just stay together and be happy. He's honestly a little amazed by all of it.

None of his friends' parents have ever had to go through anything like that.

But then again, no one else's parents are the Green Arrow and Overwatch.

"Will."

Looking up from the spot of his floor he'd been staring at, he sees his dad leaning in the doorway to his bedroom, the tie around his neck loosened a little. "Hey. What's up?"

"I'm going to be making dinner in a little while. Anything particular you want?"

He shrugs. "I'm fine with whatever Felicity wants to eat."

His dad smiles at him. "Alright. I'll call you down when it's ready."

"Okay."

He watches his dad leave the room, closing the door again, and then he turns back to the blank notebook lying in front of him. He lets out a deep sigh and leans back in his chair.

It's been a few days and he's still drawing a complete blank on what to write about for his English assignment. He did more research on Google about his dad's side of the family, but it's all the same stuff he's heard plenty of times before. Of course, some of the information on the internet is wrong. Like how his grandpa Robert and grandma Moira died.

His dad told him the truth about everything not long after he came to live with him permanently. So he knows how his grandparents died, most of what his dad and aunt went through growing up and then in the years after his dad got off the island, and a bunch of other stuff he never even imagined was possible. And yet it all happened. To his family. To the people he loves and cares about. Sometimes it makes him sick to his stomach thinking about everything they had to go through.

The quiet trill from his cell phone pulls his attention away from his thoughts to see the thin, light-weight device sitting on his desk, the screen lit up. It's a Queen Industries device, one of their prototypes that only he and one other person have been allowed to take for a test run since teenagers are the demographic Felicity and Curtis are aiming for. Everything works well with it, but he really wasn't expecting much else from the combined minds of Curtis Holt and Felicity Smoak-Queen.

Looking at the screen of the device, he smiles at the new text from Zoe Ramirez, the only other owner of the cell phone prototype. He and Zoe formed a pretty quick and easy friendship once her dad was granted full custody and she came to live with him again and got to know the rest of Team Arrow. Now the two are practically inseparable, which doesn't always sit well with Rene, he's noticed.

**Any luck with the English assignment?**

_None. You?_

**Some. It's not easy, though.**

_It really isn't. People keep telling me to write about my dad and my grandparents' old company. But I don't know if I should._

**Well you better think of something, Will. There isn't much time left until the assignment is due.**

_Yeah, I know that, Zo. I promise you it'll be done, no need to bug me about it. I just have to actually think of something to write. And write it._

**Good. I gotta go now cause dad's calling me for dinner. See you at school.**

_Yeah. Okay._

Locking his phone, he sets it off to the side and lets out a breath as he leans forward over his blank notebook again, trying desperately to think of something to write. He's had a few ideas floating around his head, but none of them really go anywhere when he tries to write about them. If he can't nail down a focus point for this assignment then he is one hundred percent screwed, may fail the assignment, and his parents will ground him forever.

* * *

William's eyes close tighter at the sudden disturbance in his sleep; someone is shaking his shoulder and calling his name, trying to pull him from his peaceful, yet somewhat uncomfortable, slumber.

Slowly opening his eyes, he sees his Aunt hovering above him, a wide smile on her face.

"Aunt Thea?"

"Hey, kid. You're finally awake."

He pulls himself into a more comfortable position in the hospital waiting room chair, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and letting out a yawn. "What's going on?" he asks the brunette in front of him.

"Felicity had the baby."

That wakes him up a little more. "She did?"

His aunt nods her head. "Yeah, she did. Took a few hours, but baby girl Queen is finally here."

"Can I go back and see her?" he asks excitedly.

"Of course you can. I'll take you there. Come on." She gestures with her head for him to follow after her as she begins moving down the hallway of the hospital. He shoots a quick look at the others waiting in the chairs before grabbing the small stuffed animal out of the chair next to him and following his aunt down the hallway and through the swinging double doors.

They walk in silence down the hall, William just a few steps behind his aunt, and he immediately feels his heart start to race a little faster in his chest at the thought of meeting his sister for the first time. He clutches tightly to the mint condition toy in his hands.

"Here we are."

He stops in his path and turns his head to find his aunt standing just outside an open door, soft voices trickling out through the doorway.

He breathes in deeply before taking a few small steps forward, pausing in the doorway and peering inside. Felicity's sitting up in the bed, a pale hospital gown on her body and the blanket pulled up across her lap. Oliver is sitting on the edge of the bed, being as close to his wife as he possibly can.

Lying in Felicity's arms, wrapped in a hospital issued pink blanket, is the reason everyone is gathered.

"Hey Will. Come on in, buddy."

William steps inside the hospital room at his dad's request, immediately crossing over to the bed where his parents are.

"Will, we'd like for you to meet your new baby sister," his dad says to him with a proud smile shining down at the baby.

He moves closer to the bed, stopping when he reaches the side and leaning forward a bit to see the baby. "She's so small," he remarks.

"She certainly didn't feel so small just a few hours ago," Felicity comments, bringing a small smile to Oliver's lips, the same type of smile he's seen his dad use toward Felicity for as long as he's known them. It's a special smile, reserved only for 'his girl', as the others like to refer to her.

"Do you want to hold her?"

He's pulled from his own head by his dad's question, both of his parents looking at him eagerly.

His eyes go a little wide at the thought. "Oh, um, I don't…"

"It's okay, Will," Felicity says softly to him. "You're not going to break her."

"Yeah, I know that."

"Have a seat," his dad says, nodding to the chair next to the bed. "I'll bring her to you."

He follows his dad's instruction, sitting down in the slightly uncomfortable hospital chair and takes a deep breath in, setting the toy he brought next to him on the seat.

The next thing he knows he's being handed a baby, and he's adjusting his arms to hold her, being mindful of her head, like his dad says.

"What's her name?" he asks, staring down at the baby's tiny face.

"Lillian Moira Queen," his dad tells him. "My mom would have spoiled her rotten. My dad probably would have too, for that matter."

He continues to stare down at the baby in his arms, in complete wonder and awe at this new life. A new life that is going to look up to him and watch him all the time and probably want to be just like him in certain aspects.

"Hi, Lily," he whispers to the sleeping baby, picking up the stuffed giraffe and lying it across her blanket covered body. "I'm your big brother Will. Welcome to the family."

.

.

.

_It honestly took me a while to figure out what my family's legacy is. Longer than I would have liked to have been thinking about what to write for this assignment._

_My mom died when I was ten and she doesn't have much family on her side._

_I didn't meet my dad until I was nine and didn't find out about him actually being my dad until I was ten._

_My stepmom doesn't have much family on her side either, her dad left when she was little and her mom didn't remarry until many years later._

_At first glance, whenever people see or hear the last name Queen in relation to Star City, a few different things immediately come to their minds; my grandpa Robert's company that he was the CEO of for years until he died in a boating accident, my grandmother Moira's contributions to Queen Consolidated as well as the Undertaking and how she tried to stop it from happening, or even my dad's playboy days that he still refuses to tell me about even though Google exists for that very purpose. They might think about all of the things my dad and aunt got away with while growing up because of their last name and who their parents were. They might think about a lot of things in regards to my family, most of which are probably true and is completely understandable for them to think those things._

_But the one thing that I think of when I hear the last name Queen, that others might not think of, is strength. But not physical strength, not exactly. I mean strength in the emotional and mental sense._

_My family has been through a lot, more than anyone should have to go through in a single lifetime. And, most of the time, they come out stronger on the other side because of it. They don't let whatever bad things happened to them in their past keep them down. They let it influence who they want to become and make them stronger and braver than they've ever been._

_My dad was stranded on an island for five years and when he came back, he reinvented himself and changed his ways, eventually becoming the Mayor of his hometown and settling down with his own family._

_My aunt suffered through drug and alcohol abuse and after a few close calls over the years, she turned her life around as well and became one of the leading advocates for anti drug use amongst teens, as well as starting a youth/teen center in the Glades for kids from all backgrounds to go to as a safe space._

_My stepmother grew up in Las Vegas raised by a single mother and later became paralyzed for a time as an adult and went on to defy the doctor's odds (with help from a close friend) and start her own tech company from the ground up with the same friend who helped her regain her ability to walk._

_My grandfather sacrificed himself, knowing he wouldn't see his wife and daughter again, so that my father had a higher chance of returning home to try and save the city that he loved._

_My grandmother sacrificed herself so that her children could survive and go on to live full lives and do the amazing things she knew that they could accomplish if they tried hard enough._

_And that's just the tip of the ice berg._

_I have a lot of extended family, people who aren't family by blood but are always there for me when I need them. And while they may not be Queens by name, they still are constantly showing me the same strength and courage that I think of when I think of the Queen name._

_It's the kind of strength that I hope to be able to have when I'm older, and the kind of strength I hope my little sister will develop as she grows up and starts experiencing the world for herself._

_That's my family's legacy._

_It's not tangible or worth any amount of money, but it's a better legacy than I could have asked for. I know it might sound cheesy or cliché, but as soon as I saw my sister for the first time in the hospital when I held her, I knew exactly what I wanted her to be able to see in our family._

_And even though I lost my mother, and I'll always be grateful for the things she taught me, I'm so proud to be a part of the Queen family. It's a damn good one to be a part of._

**Author's Note:**

> So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
> 
> I've already got the next two installments of this series figured out and am in the process of writing them. So hopefully it won't be too long until the next part is posted.
> 
> Yes, I made the name of the company 'Queen Industries'. I know that at this point in the show, Felicity wants to call it 'Helix Dynamics', which is a super cool name, but I just really love the idea of 'Queen Industries' being a thing, and also in The Flash, there was that newspaper thing with that merger thing between QI and Wayne Enterprises, so we're going with 'Queen Industries' for this universe. :)
> 
> Until next time,  
> Jellybean96 out!


End file.
